I never thought I would see a shark movie that makes Jaws 2 look like an Oscar-winning film. 47 Meters Down is shockingly that bad. It is one of the most flawed films in recent memory, with dumb characters and terrible direction. Virtually, there is almost nothing to like about this film. I was going into it hoping that maybe it would be a guilty pleasure. However, that was not the case. This is one of those movies that I never want to watch again. Ever.
Two sisters vacationing in Mexico are trapped in a shark cage at the bottom of the ocean. With less than an hour of oxygen left and great white sharks circling nearby, they must fight to survive.
The cast for 47 Meters Down is very small. It follows Lisa (Mandy Moore, A Walk To Remember) and Kate (Claire Holt, Mean Girls 2) who are on vacation in Mexico. Lisa’s boyfriend breaks up with her, claiming that she is too boring. Kate, being the great sister she is, convinces her to go out and party. They end up meeting a few guys who tell them they can get them on a boat that has a shark cage. Kate convinces Lisa to do it because as the movie made clear in the beginning, Lisa is boring. The next day, they travel out on the boat for their thrilling adventure. Sounds like a potential decent premise, right? The potential was there, no doubt. The execution was simply horrendous.
First off, the acting is laughably abysmal. Nothing any of the characters said was convincing, likable, or compelling. I was not even aware that Mandy Moore was still in the acting business. After this movie, she may want to take a break for a little while and rethink her career. Her delivery on the dialogue was inadequate. A movie like 47 Meters Down didn’t need to take itself seriously. The problem is, it takes itself too serious. It would have served better as a campy, cheesy shark survival film. Then, as an audience, you would be willing to forgive the outrageous flaws that are littered throughout the movie.
The major problem with 47 Meters Down is that it is quite unbelievable. Yeah, in a movie like this there are going to be plenty of things that are over the top. Sometimes, those things can be forgiven. However, in 47 Meters Down the flaws are so gigantic that it is not even watchable because the characters never fully feel in danger. There’s a scene where Kate’s air tank only has 5% left in it. She states that she has but just a few minutes left before it runs out. But then, a full 15 minutes of the film passes by and Kate has already left the cage and swam into open water and she STILL is not out of oxygen. It makes you just wanna throw something at the screen while sitting in the theater. Nothing is believable in the film. Both characters should have died in about 25 minutes after hitting the ocean floor. The screenplay is so poorly written that the writers couldn’t even come up with at least halfway believable reasons as to why the characters continue to survive. Things just kind of happen in 47 Meters Down. It is the definition of lazy screenwriting.
It is clear that the director/write Johannes Roberts has very little experience in the film industry. That combined with the mediocre cinematography and generic score, 47 Meters Down is very much below average on the technical side. At many times, especially near the beginning, it felt like a student film. The audio was very inconsistent as well, particularly during the dialogue exchanges. This is coming from someone who works in the film and television industry. That makes it even more frustrating.
There is a tiny aspect of 47 Meters Down that is enjoyable. Near the end, a twist happens that was not easy to see coming. It gave the film a minuscule amount of merit. To keep from spoiling anything, I will not elaborate. Also, the visual effects were decent. The sharks looked pretty cool in a few scenes. Other than that, the movie as a whole is dreadful. It is one of the most tremendously flawed films in the past 5 years. Save yourself time and money by not seeing this one in theaters.
Rating: [star rating=”0.5/5″]